TVs with digital tuners and set-top boxes not set to automatically spot the change and to retune accordingly, will require manual retuning. There will be on-screen prompts to remind you.

The change is all about shuffling the channels to make room in the listing for more stations of given types. For example, HD services will be shifted from channels 50 to 101, in the process gaining room for 20 HD channels in all. Channel 100 will become a Freeview HD information page.

Channels 1 through 99 will become home to "general entertainment" stations. There will also be room made in the listing for IPTV stations, though clearly not video-on-demand services which, of course, have no need of a time-based programme guide.

DMOL (DTT Multiplex Operators Ltd), the organisation that oversees the Freeview EPG and the channel listing, said it will reserve certain channel numbers for new public service local TV channels. These will be carried at 8 (England and Northern Ireland) and 45 (Wales and Scotland).